Sloe Gin

[CR0X]

madbadger said:

Put some effort in and make a demijohn.



A small bottle is useless as you really need to keep it a couple of years. One good session and it will be gone.

small claim to fame ... we made that demi-john ... hurrah.

[kiteless]

Mobile Chicane said:

kiteless said:

Good bump!

Having picked 14lbs of damsons last weekend, and got 3 gallons of damson wine bubbling away there are 2lbs of fruit left. So.

Damson gin?

Damson vodka?

Having not tried either, advice welcome.

You mean wild damsons / bullaces?

Vodka I think, to allow the subtleties of the damson flavour to shine. Damsons are more 'red berry-ish', sloes are more 'almondy'.

There were more far more damsons than bullaces (small damsons??), so the stuff in the freezer will be a combination of both. All were from "wild" trees, so I'll go with your vodka choice as the smell from the bucket of damsons / bullaces was divine. The local sloe harvest looks much healthier than last year, so it'll be wine and gin this year.

[RizzoTheRat]

Mobile Chicane said:

You snooze, you lose.

You can say that again! Just went out to the bush I got 750g from last year and only managed 100g! Not happy. Luckily a firned came to the rescue with knowledge of another bush and I now have 1kg in the freezer

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Saturday 25th September 16:19

[muppetdave]

3lbs picked today in the pouring rain and with a rapidly shrinking (due to the rain) puppy, only did one section of hedge and noticed lots of small immature sloes, so plenty more to come, let alone the main hedge, hurrah! Might skive of Weds to go get some more prior to Michaelmas dinner.

[RizzoTheRat]

Just made 2 litres of normal sloe gin (250g sloes, 250g sugar, 550ml gin), and a half litre bottle using demerara sugar instead of normal white sugar.
Run of of bottles for now, however I have enough sloes for a further 1.5 litres, but only enough gin for a litre. I have got some vodka though. Anyone got any quantities for sloe vodka? As with sloe gin online recipies seem to vary massively.

[CR0X]

Run out of bottles? Anyone fancy doing a bulk buying deal on some bottles? I could sort out a deal for PHer's?

[Mobile Chicane]

Today I picked 1Kg of sloes from a hedge in the garden I'd previously thought was 'just' a hedge.

I've only been here two years and not spotted it. Doh!

[Mobile Chicane]

RizzoTheRat said:

Just made 2 litres of normal sloe gin (250g sloes, 250g sugar, 550ml gin), and a half litre bottle using demerara sugar instead of normal white sugar.
Run of of bottles for now, however I have enough sloes for a further 1.5 litres, but only enough gin for a litre. I have got some vodka though. Anyone got any quantities for sloe vodka? As with sloe gin online recipies seem to vary massively.

H F-W has:

2 Kg sloes
I Kg sugar
3 (70cl) bottles of vodka

Personally I find this too sweet and reduce the sugar to 800 grams. (You can always add more.)

[muppetdave]

Just made a demi-john and two smaller bottles of sloe gin - to different recipes for a bit of fun (Mrs has made a large bottle also) and two bottles of blackberry vodka...

Edited by muppetdave on Thursday 30th September 22:36

[pugwash4x4]

after the first frosts last night we went out today and picked 2.5 kilos of sloes's

first time for us to have a go at sloe making so we'll see how we get on- will have to try and forget about them.

[Flintstone]

I've a 5 litre demijohn (so 2.5 litres of gin when I drain it off in a few months) that I started last week and enough sloes for another 6 litres. I'm working away this week but a few days in the freezer will mean they'll be ready for bottling next weekend. I'm thinking of different recipes though. Cloves were mentioned earlier in the thread and I've seen one recipe that includes a cinnamon stick, might give that a try.

Coincidentally I started making my own cider this year so guess where the gin-soaked sloes will be going

[muppetdave]

Flintstone said:

Cloves were mentioned earlier in the thread and I've seen one recipe that includes a cinnamon stick, might give that a try.

We're trying different recipes, and the mrs has used cinnamon and cloves to go for an xmassy effect - it smells good so far...

[Podie]

The missus and I hoovered up some of last years sloe gin last night.

Dang its good.

Hoping for a frost this week, so I can get some sloes at the weekend.

[RizzoTheRat]

I picked them before the frost and bunged them in the freezer

[Flintstone]

RizzoTheRat said:

I picked them before the frost and bunged them in the freezer

I did that. A local 'expert' stopped while I was picking some and told me I was wasting my time and the sloes saying "We all wait until after the frost" implying that everyone else was doing it better. He didn't seem so smug when I mentioned freezing them especially as I had stripped the entire bush

[pugwash4x4]

Flintstone said:

RizzoTheRat said:

I picked them before the frost and bunged them in the freezer

especially as I had stripped the entire bush

Thats just not cricket old boy........

[markreilly]

Flintstone said:

RizzoTheRat said:

I picked them before the frost and bunged them in the freezer

I did that. A local 'expert' stopped while I was picking some and told me I was wasting my time and the sloes saying "We all wait until after the frost" implying that everyone else was doing it better. He didn't seem so smug when I mentioned freezing them especially as I had stripped the entire bush

I thought the whole point of waiting till after the first frosts was to allow a yeast to develop or am i barking up the wrong tree ?

[stackmonkey]

markreilly said:

Flintstone said:

RizzoTheRat said:

I picked them before the frost and bunged them in the freezer

I did that. A local 'expert' stopped while I was picking some and told me I was wasting my time and the sloes saying "We all wait until after the frost" implying that everyone else was doing it better. He didn't seem so smug when I mentioned freezing them especially as I had stripped the entire bush

I thought the whole point of waiting till after the first frosts was to allow a yeast to develop or am i barking up the wrong tree ?

You're barking up the wrong tree.

Waiting until 'first frost' does two things.
1) The fruit is far more likely to be ripe and sweeter (and fractionally less bitter)
2) The freeze/thaw cycle helps to break down the thick skin of the fruit to ease the absorption of the flavours into the gin.

The yeast has nothing to do with it, even if you're making wine, as then you'll be using a proper wine-making yeast.

Edited by stackmonkey on Friday 22 October 12:46

[MKnight702]

I've got 3l of sloe gin on the go, half straight, half with almonds, cloves and cinamon. I also have 1l of blackberry brandy on the go for something a bit different this year.

Going to be a good Christmas!

[Flintstone]

pugwash4x4 said:

Flintstone said:

RizzoTheRat said:

I picked them before the frost and bunged them in the freezer

especially as I had stripped the entire bush

Thats just not cricket old boy........

Welllll, he was being an arse and someone has to be last, surely? When I say entire I mean the easily accessible ones. He could have had the ones off the upper branches with a bit of effort. Or the ones down the road.


Anyway, buggerim. They're mine now...